6 ms·

> It is the first poxvirus to spread across the globe since the eradication of smallpox. How do you figure? I got chickenpox in the 90s.

danielfoster 4y ago
This comment does not contribute anything to the discussion. I think chickenpox spread before smallpox in any case?
- gringo_flamingo 4y ago
0xcde4c3db 4y ago
Despite the name, the virus that causes chickenpox is classified as a herpes virus, not a pox virus.
ethbr0 4y ago
Chickenpox is caused by varicella zoster, which is a herpes virus. Which is why it can linger and re-emerge as shingles decades later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_zoster_virus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_zoster_virus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Cause https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Cause Similar symptoms, substantially different family trees.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  If it disfigures you just the same as monkeypox, is it a distinction with a difference?
  - OccamsMirror 4y ago
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    Yes, because it’s a different disease. Radiation sickness will give you burns, but normal burn ward treatments won’t work on it.
    - MichaelCollins 4y ago
      > Yes, because it’s a different disease So are monkeypox and smallpox, right? Related, but different diseases. So are this year's strain of influenza, and the Spanish Flu. Related, but different diseases. Should extant monkeypox cause more alarm than extant influenza?
      - woodruffw 4y ago
        “Related” being the operative word. Chickenpox is not meaningfully related to the virus family that causes smallpox and monkeypox. Nothing is a priori worthy of more or less alarm. Public health officials raise a degree of alarm based on the best epidemiological, medical, and demographic information available to them.
        MichaelCollins 4y ago
        I'm talking about the relationship between monkeypox and smallpox, vs the relationship between 2022's influenza and the spanish flu. These are both respectively in the same virus families. No? Smallpox is concerning, monkeypox as it is today isn't very concerning. If I understand the comments in this thread, the great concern is that monkeypox could become something quite deadly like smallpox was. Is that risk substantially greater than the risk of a new influenza that rips through the population like the Spanish Flu once did?
        woodruffw 4y ago
        These are questions for your public health officials, not me. I’m merely invested in correcting your previously incorrect statements; any questions of epidemiology are best left to them. Presuming that you’re interested in their answers, of course.
  - bad416f1f5a2 4y ago
    - ethbr0 4y ago
      I try to bring my best self to HN in all comments. It was a good question.
    - ColanR 4y ago
      > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
    - lfpeb8b45ez 4y ago
      “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    It's the difference between being worried that a dog is going to act wolf-like, versus a chicken is going to act wolf-like. The herpes lineage is no joke, especially given recent evidence for long-term effects, but Orthopoxviruses has some nasty members (for humans and other economically-important species).
    - MichaelCollins 4y ago
      So it's not about Monkeypox as it exists today, but a fear of what Monkeypox might become if it changed into something it presently isn't? Because as it is, it seems to kill very few people but gives people disfiguring scars. Like chickenpox.
      - ethbr0 4y ago
        I can't speak for the WHO, but that would be my assumption. And when I say "nasty Orthopoxviruses," I mean ~25% case fatality rate in the affected species, with an increased fatality rate in infants. So... pretty horrible stuff. :( These numbers seem squishy (keep an eye on the situational caveats they note for a specific row), but lists relative CFRs for different diseases. Chickenpox probably isn't going to kill you, unless you're a pregnant mother who acquires it in a specific window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fatality_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fat...
      - jhugo 4y ago
        The repeated mentions of chickenpox are weird. Apart from ending in the same sequence of three characters chickenpox and monkeypox/smallpox have nothing in common. The name similarity is accidental.
        ethbr0 4y ago
        A linguistic artifact from a time when we classified diseases by symptoms, because we had not yet acquired our modern genetic tools. :)
  - stjohnswarts 4y ago
    A different "species" of a virus is as different as you or I are from a dog, so yeah it's a distinction that matters.

danielfoster 4y ago

This comment does not contribute anything to the discussion. I think chickenpox spread before smallpox in any case?

gringo_flamingo 4y ago

0xcde4c3db 4y ago

Despite the name, the virus that causes chickenpox is classified as a herpes virus, not a pox virus.

ethbr0 4y ago

Chickenpox is caused by varicella zoster, which is a herpes virus. Which is why it can linger and re-emerge as shingles decades later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_zoster_virus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_zoster_virus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Cause https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Cause Similar symptoms, substantially different family trees.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
If it disfigures you just the same as monkeypox, is it a distinction with a difference?
- OccamsMirror 4y ago
- woodruffw 4y ago
  Yes, because it’s a different disease. Radiation sickness will give you burns, but normal burn ward treatments won’t work on it.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > Yes, because it’s a different disease So are monkeypox and smallpox, right? Related, but different diseases. So are this year's strain of influenza, and the Spanish Flu. Related, but different diseases. Should extant monkeypox cause more alarm than extant influenza?
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      “Related” being the operative word. Chickenpox is not meaningfully related to the virus family that causes smallpox and monkeypox. Nothing is a priori worthy of more or less alarm. Public health officials raise a degree of alarm based on the best epidemiological, medical, and demographic information available to them.
      - MichaelCollins 4y ago
        I'm talking about the relationship between monkeypox and smallpox, vs the relationship between 2022's influenza and the spanish flu. These are both respectively in the same virus families. No? Smallpox is concerning, monkeypox as it is today isn't very concerning. If I understand the comments in this thread, the great concern is that monkeypox could become something quite deadly like smallpox was. Is that risk substantially greater than the risk of a new influenza that rips through the population like the Spanish Flu once did?
        woodruffw 4y ago
        These are questions for your public health officials, not me. I’m merely invested in correcting your previously incorrect statements; any questions of epidemiology are best left to them. Presuming that you’re interested in their answers, of course.
- bad416f1f5a2 4y ago
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    I try to bring my best self to HN in all comments. It was a good question.
  - ColanR 4y ago
    > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
  - lfpeb8b45ez 4y ago
    “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
- ethbr0 4y ago
  It's the difference between being worried that a dog is going to act wolf-like, versus a chicken is going to act wolf-like. The herpes lineage is no joke, especially given recent evidence for long-term effects, but Orthopoxviruses has some nasty members (for humans and other economically-important species).
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    So it's not about Monkeypox as it exists today, but a fear of what Monkeypox might become if it changed into something it presently isn't? Because as it is, it seems to kill very few people but gives people disfiguring scars. Like chickenpox.
    - ethbr0 4y ago
      I can't speak for the WHO, but that would be my assumption. And when I say "nasty Orthopoxviruses," I mean ~25% case fatality rate in the affected species, with an increased fatality rate in infants. So... pretty horrible stuff. :( These numbers seem squishy (keep an eye on the situational caveats they note for a specific row), but lists relative CFRs for different diseases. Chickenpox probably isn't going to kill you, unless you're a pregnant mother who acquires it in a specific window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fatality_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fat...
    - jhugo 4y ago
      The repeated mentions of chickenpox are weird. Apart from ending in the same sequence of three characters chickenpox and monkeypox/smallpox have nothing in common. The name similarity is accidental.
      - ethbr0 4y ago
        A linguistic artifact from a time when we classified diseases by symptoms, because we had not yet acquired our modern genetic tools. :)
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  A different "species" of a virus is as different as you or I are from a dog, so yeah it's a distinction that matters.